


love is something you make bloom

by greyedscale



Series: oihina week 2020 (part ii) [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Adventurer Hinata Shouyou, Alternate Universe – Royalty, Hanahaki Disease, Hinata Shouyou & Kageyama Tobio (Background), Iwaizumi Hajime is a Good Friend, Knight Iwaizumi Hajime, Knight Trainee Hinata Shouyou, M/M, Noble Hinata Shouyou, OiHina Week, OiHina Week 2020, Pre-Relationship, Prince Kageyama Tobio, Prince Oikawa Tooru, Retainer Iwaizumi Hajime, no beta we die koganegawa’s dumps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:28:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27526906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greyedscale/pseuds/greyedscale
Summary: The cough spreads throughout his body, seizing his lungs in a creeping, tingly grasp, a feeling which demanded both movement and stillness at the same time. His control slips. He starts hacking, gasping for air, upset at the betrayal of his body, upset that his best friend had to watch him like this. Hajime is staring at his convulsing body, frozen and unsure of what to do (for probably the first time in Tooru’s ever seen). He coughs and coughs, a little spit making its way out until finally,finallya pile of drenched amber petals spill their way onto the floor.Or the story of how Prince Tooru of House Oikawa falls in love with a minor noble.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Oikawa Tooru, Iwaizumi Hajime & Oikawa Tooru
Series: oihina week 2020 (part ii) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2011942
Comments: 5
Kudos: 42





	love is something you make bloom

Tooru’s always enjoyed knight practice. Although his father had always insisted that he get his own private lessons, Tooru loved sneaking away to take part in the Seijoh’s Annual Summer Knights’ Bootcamp his kingdom always put on for its allies, and luckily enough, his private tutor had no qualms with him joining in. His trainer even helped him disguise himself so no one would know he had been there.

So, here Tooru was, short unruly locks tied into the tiniest bun, huddling behind his best friend and retainer, Hajime in an attempt to be ‘incognito.’

“Psst, psst, Iwa-chan! Anybody that’d recognize me here?” Tooru jostles his dour best friend.

“No, Prince Tobio of House Kageyama was the only prince on the list of attendees this year; however, he’s been held up by urgent business and won’t be attending until three days later. Apparently he sent a substitute attendee from one of Karasuno’s branch families,” Hajime informs, closing his eyes as he recited his brief from memory.

“Phew, all clear then,” Tooru grins widely. “I can really go all out here!”

Hajime smiles as he repeats fondly, “Yes, all clear.”

* * *

There’s an orange-haired runt being heckled by the other trainees, and Tooru just knows he has to go break it up. Hajime just sighs when he sees the sparkle in his eyes.

“Yes, my prince,” he sighs, “we can go save him.”

“Shut up, Iwa-chan,” Tooru smacks his buff best friend not so lightly, “You’re gonna give me away.”

They saunter their way over – well, Tooru saunters and Hajime strides – to where the bullies have circled around the shorter knight. However, before the royal duo can completely approach the group, they see something incredible.

The bullies have progressed to swinging their dulled practice blades at the obviously young knight. Tooru’s eyes are closing on instinct, unable to watch the beating that is sure to come. Yet, right before his eyes fully close, he sees a blur of orange which force his eyes wide open. They watch as the boy jumps twice his height to avoid the swipe, lands, and immediately twists to his right to dodge another attack. His footwork, while unpolished, is incredibly _fast_ , and Tooru swears he has never seen anything quite so beautiful – not even Swordmaster Nishida’s Dance of the Dragon routine he puts on for Tooru’s father.

There’s a pause in the attacks, and Tooru takes the chance to shove his way through.

“Yoohoo,” he greets cheerfully, “What’s going on over here?”  
“None of ya business, prissy,” one of the bullies respond, grin wide, revealing sharp teeth. “We teachin’ this one here a lesson.”  
“Oh?” Hajime raises his eyebrow threateningly, “What’s the lesson?”

Tooru grins; Hajime’s pissed.

“Branch families shouldn’t try to take the officer track as a knight. That’s reserved for the _pure_ lines.”

“And why is that?” Holy shit Hajime is super pissed. Which makes total sense to Tooru. He knows Hajime himself is from a branch family – not that it means much to Tooru that he is.

“Isn’t it self-evident? They’re _branch_.”

“Huh,” Tooru muses. “Get out.”

“What?”

“I said get the fuck out; Seijoh doesn’t need discriminating snobs in her ranks,” he explains.

“And who are you to tell us what to do?” one of the bullies sneers.

Tooru sketches a shallow bow as he introduces himself. “Tooru of House Oikawa, nice to meet you.”

The identical looks of horror on their faces would’ve made Tooru’s entire week if he hadn’t met a certain Shouyou of House Hinata in the same week.

\---

The story goes like this: a boy from what was basically common heritage meets a prince at the worst moment of his life. The prince swoops in and saves him and they ride off into the sunset… except Shouyou didn’t need saving, and it wasn’t exactly the worst moment of his life. It’s not that Shouyou’s complaining, really, he’s just more focused on learning the rules of knighthood so he could be prepared for his future adventuring days.

“Grand Prince!” Shouyou greets in what he hopes is a polite tone, sinking into a deep bow, “My deepest gratitude for the rescue. I am Shouyou from House Hinata, sent on behalf of House Kageyama of Karasuno.” God Shouyou hates being all stiff and formal.

“Way to go Shittykawa,” Shouyou hears the dark-haired knight as he elbows the prince. “So much for going under cover, eh?”

“Iwa-chan,” Seijoh’s prince whines (whines!), “I mean when Short Stacks over here is looking so cute, who can resist playing the knight in shining armor?”

“Your armor is literally painted with non-reflective paint,” the sterner of the two deadpans.

“Okay, but insulting your… ‘damsel in distress’ isn’t exactly ‘knight in shining armor’ of you, is it, Grand Prince?” Shouyou joins in on the teasing.

“Gah, this isn’t fair, you’re ganging up on me!” the light-hearted prince whines in fake complaint.

It’s the start of a very beautiful friendship.

* * *

Throughout the month-long knight’s training camp, the two get closer. Shouyou enjoys Tooru’s witty comments, his easy-going manner, the way that not everything is a competition to him. And it’s not like Shouyou hates competition – his best friend is Tobio after all – but he hadn’t exactly realized how tense competing over everything had made him he’d known what it was like to laugh until his sides hurt, to lay on the ground murmuring soft conversations while stargazing, to not constantly have to be the best. Shouyou treasured that month in an unquantifiable way.

* * *

Saying goodbye to Shouyou was probably one of the hardest things Tooru had ever done. It was hard to know the sunshine that had tumbled into his life with such gusto was not going to be as permanently at his side as Hajime. It was nice to have someone he could just be Tooru with instead of Prince Tooru of House Oikawa. Hajime was nice and all – an absolute godsend by his side – but… as much as they are best friends, can understand each other wordlessly, Hajime was still required by family duty to be by Tooru’s side. It was… nice… and surprising that anyone wanted to be around Tooru outside of obligation; he had been told, after all, that he had a quite aggravating personality. There was something electrifying about Shouyou, a magnetism that drew Tooru to him like a moth to a flame, and the lack of warmth his absence resulted in was not quite a heartbreak, but the closest Tooru’s ever experienced.

But it’d have to be fine. It’d be okay. It has to be.

On the first night after Shouyou left, Tooru finds himself bent over his bathtub, coughing and coughing until a single vibrant orange petal laid limp in stark relief against the cold, marble tiles.

* * *

Hiding things from his father isn’t something Tooru has no practice in. But hiding things from _Hajime_? Tooru’s never successfully done that before. It figured it’d be the first and only time Tooru’s heart decided to move faster than his mouth ( ~~and Tooru has chronic foot in mouth syndrome so his mouth moves pretty fast~~ ) that has him succeeding in this venture.

Tooru gets intimately familiar with the itching that crawls up his throat, the simultaneous triumph and vexation of swallowing his body’s instinctual cough. Tooru gets intimately familiar with denying his body’s needs. He learns to let his eyes water, to hide the tremble of his shaking body as he holds back his coughs with everything he is; he learns, even more than before, to make excuses to shirk his duties – to duck into cramped alcoves and hidden garden paths and inconveniently located restrooms.

And throughout it all, he collects a menagerie of sunflower petals. Unable to bring himself to throw them away, he tucks a few between the pages of his planner, hides some in the drawers of his study, places a couple in between the loose tiles that make up his room.

Every morning, Tooru wakes up to a painting of the fiery sun, it’s oranges and yellows and reds marked out in dying sunflower petals. Every morning, he chooses one petal and keeps it in his left breast pocket, the one closest to his heart. It makes everything a little more bearable, a little less dizzying when he knows he has a piece of sunshine with him all day.

* * *

“Tooru,” Hajime finally confronts after two and a half weeks of this song and dance, “Just spit it out.”

“Wha?” the ditzy prince jolts in confusion. He thought he had been so careful, so successful in his deception.

Hajime just sighs. “What’d you do this time? I know you’ve been trying to hide something from me, and you only do that when you’ve done something wrong. So spit it out; what’d you do?”

“Oh. Uh, I wasn’t aware that I was that obvious,” Tooru tries to play it off.

Hajime just gives him a look, causing the brown-haired royalty to gulp. “Yeah, you’re right, I was probably pretty obvious, right?”

His stern best friend simply raises a singular eyebrow.

“Ok, yeah, sorry to hide it from you I just thought it was stupid that I was dying over something like this.”

The green-eyed knight’s face goes unnaturally pale. “Wait a damn moment… you’re dying?!? The fuck?”

“Wait what?” he lets out. Tooru’s confused too. Didn’t Hajime find him out?

“Wait what?” Hajime echoes.

“Ok, ok, ok, so obviously you didn’t actually know shit,” Tooru begins.

“False,” Hajime retorts immediately, flicking the taller boy on his forehead, “I knew you were hiding something; I just didn’t know what.”

“… And that’s all you knew?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit. I fucked up.”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry.”

“Just tell me what’s going on, Tooru,” the muscular knight commands.

“I, well, you know, uh remember that-” But before Tooru could finish the reveal, a harsh cough wracks his entire body. He’s clutching at his chest, edging onto his throat, trying in vain to hold it back. The cough spreads throughout his body, seizing his lungs in a creeping, tingly grasp, a feeling which demanded both movement and stillness at the same time. His control slips. He starts hacking, gasping for air, upset at the betrayal of his body, upset that his best friend had to watch him like this. Hajime is staring at his convulsing body, frozen and unsure of what to do (for probably the first time in Tooru’s ever seen). He coughs and coughs, a little spit making its way out until finally, _finally_ a pile of drenched amber petals spill their way onto the floor.

“So, well, the cat’s not outta the bag, the flowers probably are, right?” Tooru chuckles hoarsely, trying to make light of the situation.

“Tooru this isn’t…”

“Yeah, sorry, sorry, you know me, sometimes my mouth moves before my brain can catch up,” the brown-haired prince apologizes.

“It’s not me is it?” Hajime asks, horrified by his sudden realization, “Please tell me I’m not the one doing this to you.”

“Fuck! No! Not that you’re undesirable… but you’re my best friend, practically a brother!” Tooru protests immediately, tripping over his words in his haste to reassure Hajime.

“Good, good,” the green-eyed knight trails off, “… Who is it then? Who dares to reject your feelings?”

“No, no, no, you got it wrong! Shouyou would never-”

“Wait the orange-haired knight that Prince Kageyama sent in his stead? About yay high?” Hajime gestures to around his shoulders.

“Yeah,” Tooru sighs wistfully, forlornly.

“Fuck, Shittykawa, you’re dumb, you know? Getting so heartbroken without even confirming anything?”

“Wait, what? There’s no way Short Stacks likes _me_!”

“Of course he does, doofus; Prince Kageyama won’t stop complaining to me about how much he talks to about you.”  
“He talks about me?” Tooru preens.

“Do you have selective hearing or some shit?” Hajime complains.

“When you’re talking? Always,” the taller boy responds with a smirk. The knight just shoves his prince lightly as he continues.

“Plus apparently he’s planning on running away to become an adventurer, and Pr-”

“Just call him Tobio-chan like I do!” Tooru interrupts.

“Prince Tobio isn’t planning on stopping him, not when it would make him happy.”

“That’s terrible! That has to mean Tobio-chan is in love with him. Oh no, oh no, oh no,” Tooru jumps to conclusions.

Hajime takes a deep breath, dragging the heel of his palm down his face. “Shittykawa.”

“Yes, Iwa-chan?”

“Prince Tobio told me this information so that I could pass it along to you.”  
“And?”

“Which means he’s not in love with Hinata.”

“Doubtful.”

“Ok, then what would you do if I said I wanted to be an adventurer?” Hajime proposes a hypothetical.

“Help you sneak out of course!” Tooru responds instantly.

“Ok, then what do you think Prince Tobio is doing with this knowledge that Hinata is running away?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

“So, uh, just hypothetically, what would you do if I wanted to-”

“Just shut up and start packing, Shittykawa.”


End file.
